DB BACKUP

[Andrew21210]

Over the last year, we have upgraded out TSM servers from 6.3.6 to 7.1.9 to 8.1.5. One of the great benefits is that we are now able to use up to 32 streams for our daily db backups. We currently have the db backup using 16 streams on each of the SP servers. My question to you all is this: Has anyone tried using all 32 streams? If so, what were the results in terms of performance?

 

[marclant]

I haven't. The customers I work with that have 6TB databases typically follow the Blueprint and backup using 12 streams going to a device class that has 6 LUNs. The Blueprint didn't see a need to go with higher than 12. Having said that, there's nothing that stops you from going higher. Just make sure that the target device class can handle the increase workload.

Probably best to slowly increase the number of streams until you reach a point of diminishing return. Once you reach that point, if you still want more streams, you will either want faster disks and/or more LUNs.

 

[Andrew21210]

Our DB backs up to 6GB VTL volumes so we've noticed that using 16 streams really reduced the time of the DB backup dramatically. What took nearly 2 hours with 4 streams on 6.3.6 now takes 37 minutes using 16 streams on 8.1.5